Practice drum



Oct. 1, 1963 F. J. IPPOLITO PRACTICE DRUM Filed May 25, 1961 IN VEN TOR.

Fem 675 J. 0 04 I70 Avian 1 5 I United States Patent 3,105,406 PRACTEEDRUM Francis J. Ippolito, 98-33 64th Ave, Forest Hills, N.Y. Filed May25, 1961, Ser. No. 112,661 Claims. (Cl. 84-411) The present inventionrelates generally to a practice drum, and more particularly to apractice drum of the snare or tom-tom variety.

As described in my issued United States Patent No. 2,893,283, one of themajor problems confronting a drummer, whether amateur or professional,is that of being able to practice. In view of the nature of thisparticular percussion instrument, whatever time of the day or night ischosen to practice, one may expect complaints from persons in theimmediate Vicinity, and accordingly the drummers practice time isseriously curtailed.

Particularly for the beginning or amateur drummer, there exists a needfor a practice device which will enable him to practice the intricatedrum arrangements and sequences.

Various types of practice drum sets have been developed which will allowa drummer to practice without disturbing others by the sounds of suchpractice. Unfortunately these practice sets are usually quite expensiveand priced well out of the range of the beginner, amateur drummer, andoften of the professional.

It is broadly an object of the present invention to provide a practicedrum which will alleviate one or more of the above-mentioneddilficulties.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a mutedpractice drum which, when struck, gives off audible and discerniblesounds of low amplitude, and which allows the drummer to obtain the feelfor and rhythm of the selection which he is practicing.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a practice drumwhich may, when used in conjunction with a regular set of drums, convertthem into a practice set.

In accordance with the objects of the present invention, there isprovided a practice drum which can be placed upon a table or othersupport, and which will not rattle or move when being used. Further, ifso desired, this practice drum may be placed directly on top of astandard snare drum or tom-tom drum, and will not scratch or otherwisemar the playing surface of the drum. When used in this manner, thedrummer will be able to practice all of the required manipulations andstill maintain the feel and visual effect of practicing on a completeset of drums.

The improved practice drum is of a generally circular configuration andis composed of a cylindrical rim which has an'outwardly extendingannular ridge for-med therein.

The annular ridge has a greater periphery than the rest of thecylindrical rim. A rigid circular base section is sized to be securedwithin the annular ridge of the cylindrical rim. Practice pads of anelastorneric material are mounted upon the base section. The completepractice drum assembly is adapted to be placed on any flat surface orupon the skin head of an actual drum.

The above brief description, as well as further objects, features andadvantages of the present invention, will be best appreciated byreference to the following detailed description, when taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an improved practice drum embodyingfeatures of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view showing the component pieces of the improvedpractice drum;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view on an enlarged scale, takensubstantially along the line 33 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction ofthe arrows; and,

FIG. 4 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale taken substantially:along line 4-4 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows, withthe addition of a U-shaped channel member in accordance with theinvention.

Referring now specifically to the drawings, there is seen in FIG. 1 animproved practice drum in accordance with the present invention which isgenerally designated by reference numeral ill. The practice drum 11'}includes a cylindrical rim 12 which is of a diameter corresponding to orslightly smaller than that of a standard size snare or tom-tom drumhead. The cylindrical rim 12 is formed with an outwardly extendingannular ridge 14 therein. The outwardly extending annular ridge 14 has agreater diameter than the rest of the cylindrical rim 12. The ends 16and 18 of the cylindrical rim 12 are joined together and maintained inthe joined positions by rivets 20, or by other well known fasteningmeans. The end 13 of the cylindrical rim 12 is oifset so as to overliethe other end 16 of the cylindrical rim 12 to permit the insertion ofthe rivet 20 through both ends of the cylindrical rim, as is best seenin FIGS. 3 and 4.

When in this assembled position, the outwardly extending annular ridge14 forms a groove 22 into which the rigid circular base section 24 isinserted. The rigid circular base section 24 is of a greater diameterthan that of the inner diameter 26 of the cylindrical rim 12.

The rigid circular base section 24 is fitted within the groove 22, whichis formed by the outwardly extending annular ridge 14, and is securedtherein when the overlapping ends 16, 13 of the cylindrical rim 12 areriveted together.

Referring now specifically to FIG. 2, there is seen a pad 3%) which isformed of an elastomeric material, preferably foam rubber orpolyethylene, which is glued or otherwise affixed to the face 28 of therigid base section 24. The pad 30 is of a slightly smaller diameter thanthat of the rigid base section 24 so as to not to interfere with thesecurernent of the rigid base section 24 within the groove 22 of theoutwardly extending annular ridge 14 of the cylindrical rim 12, as shownin FIG. 3.

A similar pad 30a is afiixed to the opposite face 28a of the rigid basesection 24 in the same manner as pad 3% A sheet 32 of calf skin orplastic such as Mylar is laminated or glued to the foam pad 30 toproduce a firm surface which simulates the touch of a drum and whichstill gives as a soft muffled sound when struck by sticks or brushes.Such sound would be of a sufiicient audio level to be heard or recorded,but would not be loud enough to be disturbing. If it is desired topractice without any discernible sound being given off, the user merelyhas to turn over the assembled practice drum so as to have the remaininguncovered el-astomeric pad 39a facing up. Since there is no skin orcover on the pad 30a, virtually no sound at all is produced when thispad is struck, yet this uncovered pad still provides the practicingdrummer with an adequate feel of the instrument.

To facilitate the practicing of him shots with a minimum of noise, thereis employed a rim muffling device, shown in FIG. 4, which consists of aU-shaped channel member 34 which overlies the cylindrical rim 12 of thepractice drurn 10. This U-shaped member is formed of rubber or plastic,and cushions the cylindrical rim 12 to absorb sound when the rim isstruck during practice. This U-shaped channel member 34 further servesto prevent the practice drum' from rattling or sliding about on thesurf-ace upon which the practice drum is placed. This channel memberalso serves to prevent any marring of the surface upon which thepractice drum is located.

In actual use, if so desired, the drummer may place the practice drumdirectly on top of the regular snare or tom-tom drum, and by so doingthe drummer will be able to practice each of the drumming sequenceswithout 3 losing the feel of and the positioning of the actual set ofdrums.

A latitude of modification, substitution and change is intended in theforegoing disclosure, and in some instances some features of the presentinvention will be used without a corresponding use of others.

What I claim is:

1. A practice drum comprising a continuous cylindrical rim including acentral annular ridge and upper and lower rim portions on either side ofsaid annular ridge and extending therefrom, said annular ridge having adiameter greater than the diameter of said upper and lower rim portionsforming a seat within said annular ridge, a rigid circular base withinsaid rim' and secured within said seat, said base having a diametergreater than the diameter of said upper and lower rim portions, at leastone practice pad of disc-like configuration positioned on one side ofsaid base and formed of an elastomeric material and having a diameterless than the diameter of said base and equal to the diameter of theinner surface of said upper and lower rim portions, and adhesive meanssecuring said practice pad to said base and forming an almost noiselesssurface in simulation of the surface of a drum.

2. A practice drum comprising a continuous cylindrical rim including acentral annular ridge and upper and lower rim portions on either side ofsaid annular ridge and extending therefrom, said annular ridge having adiameter greater than the diameter of said upper and lower rim portionsforming a seat within said annular ridge, a rigid circular base withinsaid rim and secured Within said seat, said base having a diametergreater than the diameter of said upper and lower rim portions, at leastone practice pad of disc-like configuration secured on one side of saidbase and formed of an elastomeric material and having a diameter lessthan the diameter of said base and equal to the diameter of the innersurface of said upper and lower rim portions, and. at least one layer ofsheet material secured to the outer surface of said practice pad forminga low amplitude sound-producing surface in simulation of the surface ofa drum.

3. A practice drum comprising a continuous cylindrical rim including acentral annular ridge and upper and lower rim portions on either side ofsaid annular ridge and extending therefrom, said annular ridge having adiameter greater than the diameter of said upper and lower rim portionsforming a seat within said annular ridge,

a rigid circular base within said rim and secured 'within said seat,said base having a diameter greater than the diameter of said upper andlower rim portions, at least one practice pad of disc-like configurationpositioned on one side of said base and formed of a foam e-lastomcricmaterial and having a diameter less than the diameter of said base andequal to the diameter of the inner surface of said upper and lower rimportions, adhesive means securing said practice pad to said base, and atleast one cylindrical channel member, U-shaped in cross sect-ion,overlying said cylindrical rim and mounted thereupon, said channelmember being formed of a sound-absorbint non-abrasive material.

4. A practice drum comprising a continuous cylindrical rim including acentral annular ridge and upper and lower rim portions on either side ofsaid annular ridge and extending therefrom, said annular ridge having adiameter greater than the diameter of said upper and lower rim portionsforming a seat within said annular ridge, a rigid circular base withinsaid rim and secured within said seat, said base having a diametergreater than the diameter of said upper and lower rim portions, apractice pad of disc-like configuration positioned on each side of saidbase and formed of a foam el-astomeric material and having a diameterless than the di-ameterof said base, adhesive means securing saidpractice pad to said base, and at least one layer of sheet materialsecured to the outer surface of one of said practice pads forming asound-producing surface in simulation of the surface of a drum. I

5. A practice drum comprising a continuous cylindrical r-im including acentral annular ridge and upper and lower rim portions on either side ofsaid annular ridge and extending therefrom, said annular ridge having adiameter greater than the diameter of said upper and lower rim portionsforming a seat within said annular ridge,

a rigid circular base within said rim and secured within said seat, saidbase having a diameter greater than the diameter of said upper and lowerrim portions, a practice pad of disc-like configuration positioned oneach side of said base and iormed of a foam elastomeric material andhaving a diameter less than the diameter of said base,

' adhesive means securing said practice pad to said base,

at least one layer of sheet material secured to the outer surface of oneof said practice pads forming a soundproducing surface in simulation ofthe surface of a drum, and at least one cylindrical channel member,U-sh-aped in cross section, overlying said cylindrical rim and mount edthereupon, said channel member being formed of a sound absorbing,non-abrasive material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

1. A PRACTICE DRUM COMPRISING A CONTINUOUS CYLINDRICAL RIM INCLUDING ACENTRAL ANNULAR RIDGE AND UPPER AND LOWER RIM PORTIONS ON EITHER SIDE OFSAID ANNULAR RIDGE AND EXTENDING THEREFROM, SAID ANNULAR RIDGE HAVING ADIAMETER GREATER THAN THE DIAMETER OF SAID UPPER AND LOWER RIM PORTIONSFORMING A SEAT WITHIN SAID ANNULAR RIDGE, A RIGID CIRCULAR BASE WITHINSAID RIM AND SECURED WITHIN SAID SEAT, SAID BASE HAVING A DIAMETERGREATER THAN THE DIAMETER OF SAID UPPER AND LOWER RIM PORTIONS, AT LEASTONE PRACTICE PAD OF DISC-LIKE CONFIGURATION POSITIONED ON